VOI Kiwengwa Resort

The hotel has a fantastic location—right on the beach and centrally placed on the island. The design is stunning, and the facilities are great, with options like padel, pickleball, table tennis, and a pool. The buffet offers plenty of variety (though it’s mostly Italian with some local dishes), and overall, the food is really good (however, the one night we had a food rush (guest after guest waitingin line for pasta), and the chef in a panic just started dishing out undercooked pasta). This hotel primarily caters to Italian-speaking guests, which should have been clearly stated in the hotel information. The food options are heavily Italian-focused, and the entertainment team (Bravo Team) conducts activities almost entirely in Italian. While they occasionally make announcements in English, the activities themselves are in Italian, making it difficult for non-Italian speakers to participate. The "all-inclusive" package is misleading—only local alcohols are included, and I didn’t see options like cappuccinos available. The coffee quality was also disappointing. Additionally, the front desk staff were unwelcoming and, at times, hostile. When we arrived in the evening, they aggressively rushed our shuttle driver to leave, even though we took less than five minutes to exit and there was no one waiting behind us. The Maasai greeter also acted strangely and was reluctant when we asked him for a simple photo of us and our tour guide. Very strange and unpleasant.

No regular power outlets in the bedroom make it impossible to charge the cellphone. No phones in the bedroom. No TV/coffee maker and/or microwave in the bedroom compare to other resorts in the area.

Exceptional

The Property is at an excellent location. The location, the food and the staff.

Beautiful Resort on one of the best beaches in Zanzibar. Phillipo is a great manager, welcomed us, upgraded our rooms for us and offered us all inclusive for an additional fee which we accepted. Too many "beachy boys and Masai" worrying you on the beach.

Good

Very good

They baked a cake and sang for my friend on her birthday which was great. We stayed at bungalow 22 which was very close to the beach. Their all inclusive drinks is very very limited.. ordinary cocktails such as mojito etc are not even included. Their safes are not allocated in the rooms which was a very big inconvenience, they have a safe room near reception.

Superb

The beach is great, staff are really helpful, the ambience of the property is lovely The internet is terrible! It’s an Italian property, but they can add more tropical meal options. The drinks are quite expensive as well

Amazing location, friendly staff, delicious food, rooms spacious and well equipped. Nothing - it was just perfect !

Staff very friendly and go out of their way to be helpful

Staff in the hotel, minus the Bravo Team, were polite and friendly. Basic amenities in the room. View of the beach was stunning. Fresh bottle of water in the room daily. Firstly, I never leave poor reviews. I am very much of the belief that if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it, however, I feel it is important, when you spend so much money, to provide a more accurate view of this hotel and hope that changes are made, although it is clear from the response made by the hotel to other such reviews (as far back as 2019), that changes will not be made. We considered flying home after the second night. All-inclusive is not all inclusive. Most alcoholic drinks are an additional charge as is simple espresso and cappuccino. The alcohol and soft drinks you are served are cheap and which we often left as they tasted so bad. The wifi logs you out every 3-8 minutes. This becomes incredibly annoying when trying to check into flights. The food is disgusting. It is predictable, over cooked and food is brought back out at the next serving from that of before. Cakes and slices of pizza are served at the beach bar in the afternoon, but these too are dry and rock solid. Every meal is always 3-4 different pastas (minimum) and grilled fish. Breakfast is just as predictable. Drinks are served in paper cups but there is no recycling scheme which is pointless. Plastic spoons at dinner but again, no recycling scheme Loud music blares into the night into the very early hours. I felt sorry for people who had young children as the lyrics were clearly heard and we were staying at a distance from the main building. There isn't anything around the hotel, so you do feel very stuck. The locals do stand on the 'imaginery line' and are very pushy. I understand their need to sell but the two times we tried to walk along the beach for something to do, we were joined by locals trying to invite us to their shops. There is a 5% charge for using your card at the hotel reception and a 6.5% charge for using your card in the small boutique on site.

The Wifi connection couldn’t be better. Every single connection was gut for about 5 minutes, and then the connection was lost.

The room was spacious and fine. The beach is nice with alot of palms, but with many sellers. Well first of all you need to be prepared, that this really is an Italian hotel. From the italian staff to food and to hospitality perspective. The native staff is really cocky, not even say hello, still on their phones but not at all interested in taking care of the guest, before you kindly ask them. And if you do, they are trully bothered to help you or to even get more food to the tables. The restaurant is big enough, breakfasts are poor, but standard italian, many pastries. I really dont undrestand, that even if it is italian owned hotel, why the hell should I pay for an espresso or cappuccino extra in AI. That was really a surprise. The lunch and the dinner is fine, but again, pasta and pizza everywhere, not enough fruit and vegetables nor local food. Actually, there was I think just some potatoes and lentils as a local meals… the snacks at the bar and beach bar everyday the samy, old, not fresh at all and the sweets with ants everywhere. What I really really hated and did not understand was the “paper” cups. Which were not even paper. If you ordered a cola, they opened the small plastic bottled, put it in the paper cup, throw away the bottle. But if you ordered a sparkling water, they left it in the plastic bottle. This really does not make sense and if the VOI hotels appears like a sustainable and ecological, they definitelly should have replaced the cups with reusable glasses or plastic reusable cups and leave the plastic bottles at All and just replace it with some soda machines. And not to mention the paper plates, which were used everywhere, at the bar, at the beach .. I dont really get it, is it because of the lazines of the staff, so that they dont want to wash the dishes? Even the spoons at the restaurant were plastic. This was really really disappointing and I have never countered something like that, even in cheaper hotels. Overall, I would not come back again.

Set on a beautiful beach where you can walk for miles. The gardens were stunning too. The room was very spacious and the balcony looked over the pool and the beach. The staff were all super friendly. nothing

All the furniture in the rooms, in the dining area, in the common areas was very uncomfortable, hard wood and lumpy cushions

Superb

Everything was fine, stuff especially! A lot of activities around the hotel, clean hotel. Food was ok but a bit monotonous. With no good breakfast if someone wants to eat healthy. Very poor access to the ocean - the beach (sand, sun beds) was fine but due to tides and location in the bay resulted in the very shallow, muddy and dirt water

The garden and the beach The food was not tasty at all and the entertainment was rather primitive. If you travel with teenager kids, there is no entertainment for them. There are definitely much better AI hotels in Zanzibar